Man killed in Saturday accident in Hampton

Brennan Francis Russell, 23, of Newport News, was a passenger in a Cadillac that went off the road

HAMPTON — A Newport News man died Sunday night after the car he was riding in on Saturday careened off the road, flipped over and struck a utility pole.

Brennan Francis Russell, 23, of Dorchester Court in Newport News, was the passenger in the 2004 Cadillac that was going west on Saunders Road about 10:30 p.m., when the driver lost control and hit a ditch, said Hampton police spokeswoman Paula Scheck.

Police responded to a report of an overturned car on Saunders Road. Russell, who was wearing a seatbelt, was hospitalized immediately after the crash. Police got word Sunday night that he had died.

The Cadillac's driver, a 25-year-old Newport News man, is still hospitalized, being treated for what police said were non-life threatening injuries. Charges are pending against him, Scheck said, with speed believed to be a factor in the case.

It was the second accident in Hampton in three days in which passengers were killed when speeding cars went off the road.

Samantha Lynn Bartley, 19, of Lansing Drive in Hampton, died just before midnight Thursday when a 2008 Nissan Altima in which she was riding veered off the road and struck a tree. Bartley was wearing a seatbelt, police said.

Charges are pending in that case against the driver, a 25-year-old Hampton man. Police did not immediately release the names of the drivers in either accident.